EU President Herman Van Rompuy explains the measures being taken to punish
Russia for the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine

12:04PM GMT 21 Mar 2014

The European Union slapped travel bans and asset freezes on 12 more people on Thursday, closing in on President Vladimir Putin's inner circle to punish him in the escalating crisis over the Russian annexation of the Crimea peninsula.

The move brought the number of Russians and Ukrainians facing EU sanctions to 33.

EU President Herman van Rompuy said the names of those sanctioned would be published on Friday and added "some of them are really high-ranking".

The EU leaders also tasked its executive Commission to prepare a series of economic sanctions that could be imposed if one of the biggest political crises in Europe since the Cold War worsened further.

"We urge for a prompt agreement on an OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission into Ukraine and we've asked the High Representative to urgently draw up plans for an EU contribution to facilitate the work of the OSCE mission," said Mr van Rompuy.